Democratic Presidential Candidate Arrested, Accused of Trying to Extort $20M From Major Company

Stormy Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti has been arrested. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan on Monday charged him for attempting to extort more than $20 million from Nike, confirmed CNN.

According to the criminal complaint, Avenatti met in March 2019 with an attorney for Nike. In the meeting, he threatened to release damaging information about the company if Nike refused to pay him and another person millions in payment. Avenatti also allegedly demanded that Nike pay $1.5 million to an individual he claimed to represent.

"I'll go take $10 billion dollars off your client's market cap...I'm not [expletive] around," Avenatti said, according to the complaint.

A correspondent for NBC tweeted, "Michael Avenatti has been arrested and charged for attempting to extract more than $20 million in payments from Nike by threatening to use his ability to garner publicity to inflict substantial financial and reputational harm."

Avenatti tweeted before his arrest, "Tmrw at 11 am ET, we will be holding a press conference to disclose a major high school/college basketball scandal perpetrated by @Nike that we have uncovered. This criminal conduct reaches the highest levels of Nike and involves some of the biggest names in college basketball."

Avenatti didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The Manhattan US Attorney's office said it would hold a press conference to discuss the charges on Monday afternoon.

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles will also announce separate charges of wire fraud and bank fraud against Avenatti Monday afternoon.